The Man with the Golden Torc: Secret Histories, Book 1

Meet Shaman Bond, aka Eddie Drood, scion of the ancient Drood family. He is devoted to protecting humanity from the forces of darkness. Protected by the secret weapon received at birth by all members of the Drood family - a magical gold torc (i.e., a neck ring) that turns into a suit of nearly impervious golden armor - Eddie faces arcane dangers with healthy doses of wry self-confidence and sarcasm. Then the family matriarch sends him on a mission that turns out to be a deadly setup.

Blue Moon Rising: Forest Kingdom, Book 1

Rupert didn't especially want to be a prince. And he certainly never asked to be the second son of a royal line that really didn't need a spare. So he was sent out to slay a dragon and prove himself - a quest straight out of legend. But he also discovered the kinds of things legends tend to leave out, as well as the usual demons, goblins, the dreaded Night Witch - and even worse terrors hidden in the shadows of Darkwood. Rupert did find a fiery dragon - and a beautiful princess to rescue.

Something from the Nightside: Nightside, Book 1

"Taylor is the name. John Taylor...My card says I'm a detective, but what I really am is an expert on finding things. It's part of the Gift I was born with as a child of the Nightside - the hidden heart of London where it's always three a.m., where inhuman creatures and otherworldly gods walk side-by-side in the endless darkness of the soul. Assignment: Joanna Barrett hires me to track down her teenage daughter, who decided to forgo the circus and run away to the Nightside."

Monster Hunter International

Five days after Owen Zastava Pitt pushed his insufferable boss out of a 14th story window, he woke up in the hospital with a scarred face, an unbelievable memory, and a job offer. It turns out that monsters are real. All the things from myth, legend, and B-movies are out there, waiting in the shadows. Some of them are evil, and some are just hungry. Monster Hunter International is the premier eradication company in the business. And now Owen is their newest recruit.

Nightlord: Sunset

Eric didn't ask to be a vampire. In fact he didn't even believe in them. Biting your own tongue with your fangs does a lot of convincing. Even so, being a part-time undead isn't as easy as you might think. It can let you hold down a day job, true, but sometimes the night "life" can be more than a little difficult, what with those bloodthirsty urges and predatory instincts kicking in.

Drinking Midnight Wine

When Toby Dexter falls for the woman on the train, the woman with the most perfect mouth in the world, he little realises that she isn't quite human: She lives in the magical world that exists alongside our own. And when he follows her to ask her out, he accidently slips from his own world, Veritie, into hers. She warns him that it's a dangerous thing to be a mortal in the magical world of Mysterie and that he must not fall in love with her: She's much older than she looks and mortal must not love immortal.

Urban Enemies: A Collection of Urban Fantasy Stories

Villains have all the fun - everyone knows that - and this anthology takes you on a wild ride through the dark side! The top villains from 16 urban fantasy series get their own stories - including the baddies of New York Times best-selling authors Jim Butcher, Kevin Hearne, Kelley Armstrong, Seanan McGuire, and Jonathan Maberry. For every hero trying to save the world, there's a villain trying to tear it all down.

Deathless Collection: Books 1-3 and the Prequel Novella

A pyramid predating all known cultures appears without warning. Its discovery throws into question everything we know about the origins of mankind. Inside lies incredible technology, proof of a culture far more advanced than our own. Something dark lurks within, eager to resume a war as old as mankind. When it is unleashed, it heralds the end of our species' reign.

Bill the Vampire, Scary Dead Things, The Mourning Woods, and Holier Than Thou: The Tome of Bill Series: Books 1-4

There are reasons we fear the dark. Bill Ryder...isn't one of them. Gamer, geek, and legendary vampire - The Tome of Bill is the tale of an unlikely hero trying to survive in a world of undead horrors. Despite awesome supernatural powers, loyal allies, and an attitude the size of Brooklyn, the odds are still stacked heavily against him. Bill Ryder must fulfill his destiny and save the world from the ancient terrors that threaten it - all while trying to work up the nerve to ask out the girl of his dreams.

Crimes Against Magic: The Hellequin Chronicles, Book 1

How do you keep the people you care about safe from enemies you can’t remember? Ten years ago, Nate Garrett awoke on a cold warehouse floor with no memory of his past and the only clues to his identity were a piece of paper with his name on it and a propensity toward magic. Now he’s a powerful sorcerer and a successful thief for hire, but it turns out that those who stole his memories aren’t done with him yet. When they cause a job to go bad, threatening a sixteen-year-old girl, Nate swears to protect her.

Book of Souls: A Prof Croft Prequel

Let's go back to the night I turned 13, the night Grandpa filleted my finger with his cane sword. I can't say what terrified me more, the cold anger in his eyes or the crazy things in his locked study. A talking trunk. Squirming coats. A bookshelf whose titles shifted before my eyes. And one chilling title in particular: Book of Souls. Ten years later I'm on my way to a Romanian monastery, in search of that lost book. But I'm not the only one. Three others have beaten me to the local village: two researchers and...

Mean Streets

Featuring New York Times best-selling authors Jim Butcher and Simon R. Green, and national best-selling authors Kat Richardson and Thomas E. Sniegoski, Mean Streets offers four novellas from the hottest names in contemporary paranormal suspense. Running the gamut from demons and werewolves to zombies and black magic, these whodunits crackle with otherworldly secrets, making for a noir collection with an extra set of fangs.

Publisher's Summary

Considered by the author to be his finest work yet, this is a novel of realistic detail, heartfelt emotion, and dazzling imagination that builds a world listeners won't want to leave and spins a tale they won't want to end. In a town of amazing magicks, where the real and the imagined live side by side and the Faerie of legend know the automatons of the future, Time sees all - but even he cannot escape the prophecy of James Hart's return, which can only mean the death of Shadows Fall.

Excellent book and a wild ride! I have listened to all of the author's Nightside books as well as his Secret Histories. I was expecting the same writing style in Shadows Fall and a continuation of the descriptions of Shadows Fall as described in the Nightside books. For the first two chapters I did not think much of the book or the reader because I was expecting a Nightside connection that was not there. By the third chapter the book and the reader became excellent. I was totally drawn in and couldn't stop listening. I listen in my car and found myself inventing places to go just so I could listen to the book. The readers range of voices and characters is amazing and it is easy to tell the characters apart by the voices. He does male voices, female voices and accents.

All of Simon R. Greens books have some horror and violence tempered with tongue in cheek humor to soften it. Not so in this book. This book is more Simon R. Green meets Stephen King. The book does contain Greens's usual whimsical characters but once it gets going the horror and violence are unrelenting and graphic. If nothing in the Nightside series has disturbed you then you will be fine with this book. Highly recommended for the Simon R. Green fan. Also recommended if you have never listened to Green as the book stands on it's own.

Minor Spoiler Ahead!

If you are a Christian who offends easily do not buy this book, I'm sure an offended Christian listener will post a review going into more detail but I will not.

Immigration lawyer in Kansas City. I like Character driven dramas, fantasy (monsters, magic and witches oh my!) and coming of age stories. Favs include: The Book Thief, The Game of Throne series, Harry Potter Series, Dresden Files, Nightside series, anything by Neil Gaimen, 100 Years of Solitude.

The setup of this book was great - It's about a town where dreams and fictional characters come to die. So many possibilities. Stop and think of all of the cool stuff that could be done here. However, nothing interesting or exciting does happen, and while there are some interesting characters throughout, their efforts are hugely wasted on a story that's hard to keep track of, and gets duller and duller with every hour.

Not sure what I was looking for, but this wasn't it. I kept waiting for the story to really take off and go. But that never really happened. In the end, I was just kind of disappointed with the whole thing. I've been a fan of Green's other works, I saw a few people who said this was one of his best, and this one was getting good reviews... I think I expected something I didn't get. There wasn't anything particularly wrong with the narration or the story, I was just not feeling this one.

The fault may be the editor, there was no pause between paragraphs, the story seemed to leapfrog into another cast of characters within the sentence, made the story very disjointed. I was disappointed.

Yes, I have enjoyed his Secret Histories series featuring Eddie Drood and his golden armor very much.

Any additional comments?

Just a little too far out there even for a Green fan...I tried, but just couldn't get into the whole story line.. gave up about an hour in. Disappointing, but even Simon R Green can't bat 1000 for everyone!

I'm a fan of Simon r green, love his forest kingdom books, hawk and Fisher, drood books and sci fi like, hell world, mist world etc. I've always found the pace, imagination and humour of his books to be great entertainment.

which is why this was such a disappointment, just not up to Mr greens usual standard.

the narration not done well, in a lifeless bored tone that puts you to sleep and makes you loss focus on what is already a mediocre book.

sorry Mr green.

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